A 12-year-old surfer has shared footage showing a great white shark breaching just beyond where she and her brother were riding waves in San Diego County.
Kaydn Persidok, of Encinitas, posted the footage to Instagram on Tuesday. It shows Kaydn and her brother Reef ripping small waves when, at 27 seconds, a juvenile white shark leaps clear of the surface.
“Anybody else feel a little sharky vibe yesterday out in the lineup?” Kaydn wrote.
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The footage was captured at Seaside Reef, a North San Diego County spot popular among up-and-coming stars. Kaydn, who is part of the USA Surfing Olympic Development Team, recalled her experience to The CW San Diego:
“A little while before we saw the shark breach, my friend said she saw something that looked like a shark swim right under her, and right then it got suspicious! The water was a little murky because of the rain and it just felt sharky. Then as we saw it breach my heart raced and I was amazed and stunned but also a bit scared because it wasn’t too far away from us!”
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Kaydn added: “I respect the ocean and all the wildlife and creatures in it! I think it’s really cool to see a shark breach while a surfer is riding a wave! I’ve never seen that before.”
Juvenile white sharks have been spotted sporadically for the past several months close to San Diego beaches, especially the Del Mar area.
Chris Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, told FTW Outdoors:
“We’ve still got a dozen or so juvenile white sharks hanging out at Del Mar. Some have been there almost a year now.”
Juvenile white sharks, which can measure 10-plus feet, prey mostly on stingrays and other bottom fishes and are most commonly seen along the Southern California coast in summer and early fall.